Paolo Di Canio has spoken of his intention to apply a new social media policy at Sunderland in a bid to quell any potential problems involving his players.

It comes after winger James McClean returned to Twitter, despite protestations from club officials. McClean had previously been banned by Sunderland after he controversially tweeted about the song The Broad Black Brimmer by The Wolfe Tones - which denotes support of the IRA.

Keen to install new rules, Di Canio described players' compulsion to be on such sites as "silly".

"We are going to talk about this because we know what happened in the past," Di Canio told Sky Sports. "It is obvious that in the future we are going to bring different rules. The new generation, technology, it is easy to have a link with other people that don't like you, that for me is silly because there are many other ways to contact the people."

With attentions promptly turning to Monday night and the Black Cats' trip to face Aston Villa, the 44-year-old has likened the game to a European final - with the former Swindon boss believing victory will guarantee Premier League survival.

"If we win on Monday, we stay up," Di Canio told the Sunderland Echo. "I've told my players, Monday is a Champions League final. This week is the most important week of the season because if we win on Monday, we stay up three games in advance. Probably not mathematically, but we stay up.

"It doesn't mean we'll become a Champions League side, but it means with three games to go, we can finish in a good position. If they work as hard as they have done in the last few weeks, there is an enormous opportunity to enjoy the last three games and get the maximum points they can."